A communication system typically involves transmitting an information signal via a transmitted communications signal from a communications transmitter to a communications receiver over a communication channel. The communications receiver receives the transmitted communications signal as it passes through the communications channel to provide a received communications signal. The communications receiver then recovers the information signal from the received communications signal. However, one or more imperfections within the communications transmitter may cause undesirable noise and/or interference to be embedded within the transmitted communications signal. This undesirable noise and/or interference degrades an ability of the communications receiver to recover the information signal.
Conventional communications systems typically use a loop back configuration in a transceiver configuration, the transceiver configuration including a communications transmitter and a communications receiver. In this configuration, the communications transmitter is directly connected to the communications receiver, thereby the communications receiver directly receives the transmitted communications signal. Alternatively, the transceiver includes a specialized communications receiver that is solely used to determine the undesirable noise and/or interference embedded within the transmitted communications signal. In either scenario, the communications receiver frequency translates or downconverts the transmitted communications signal to approximately zero Hertz or DC to allow a digital signal processor (DSP) to measure the undesirable noise and/or interference. The DSP typically performs a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the transmitted communications signal to measure the undesirable noise and/or interference. This approach, however, consumes both unnecessary power and area, which are both at a premium in today's ever shrinking integrated circuits.
Thus, there is a need for a communications transmitter that compensates for undesirable noise and/or interference resulting from one or more imperfections within the communications transmitter itself that overcomes the shortcomings described above. Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description that follows.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the reference number.